Users increasingly use networking systems (e.g., social networking systems) to research, view images of, and communicate about products and services offered on the Internet and other networks. With increased network traffic, networking systems have expanded placement of digital advertisements of such products and services. For example, networking systems commonly show digital advertisements on a merchant's profile page and post digital advertisements within newsfeeds of users. In addition to placing such digital advertisements, networking systems commonly provide mechanisms for merchants and advertisers to provide more detailed information concerning the products and services featured in a digital advertisement, such as by posting videos or images featuring an advertised product on a merchant's profile page.
Despite the increased popularity of digital advertising in networking systems, conventional digital-communication techniques provide limited mechanisms for users to inquire and receive immediate responses about advertised products and services. For example, networking systems often provide merchant's or advertiser's email addresses to which users can send inquiries and from which users can receive answers concerning advertisements. But email communications can be slow and provide a user with canned information unsuited to a user's inquiries. Email can also pose security and privacy risks to users by, for example, exposing a user to viruses attached to emails, subjecting a user's email address to repeated emails concerning other products or services, and inadvertently disclosing a user's email address to hackers.
In addition to posting email addresses, networking systems also frequently insert hyperlinks in digital advertisements as another conventional digital-communication technique. In some digital advertisements, for example, hyperlinks direct a web browser or application to a merchant or advertiser's webpage or mobile application. Unfortunately, hyperlinking can direct a network user to excessive amounts of information that fail to address a network user's inquiry. Even webpages that provide answers to frequently asked questions may not address a user's inquiry or may require the user to search or sort through information before locating an answer to an inquiry. In other words, a hyperlink may provide generalized and non-relevant information to a network user.
In addition to emails and hyperlinks, some networking systems use a messaging application to facilitate immediate communication between merchants or advertisers and users about information related to a digital advertisement. But messaging-application volumes may overwhelm a merchant or advertiser's representatives with an excessive number of inquiries. For example, a messaging application by itself often cannot facilitate a merchant or advertiser's workforce to promptly address hundreds or thousands of inquiries during peak volumes on some networking systems, where the volume of inquires can be unpredictable.
Accordingly, conventional digital-communication techniques provide networking systems with limited security, responsiveness, and volume-handling capabilities for user inquiries concerning products or services advertised in a digital advertisement.